betsey johnson in boston - time is of the essence...timing, too.

I've been excited about this Betsey Johnson show ever since I found out about it (and got a press pass) a month ago.  So excited that I somehow got it into my head that it was yesterday, not today.  Yup, that was interesting.  Going through the rain in really painful flats, getting there dry but slightly out of breath...and walking into some sort of arts awards ceremony/reception (I thought it seemed a little to tame for Betsey Johnson...).  Whoops.

Today it was far more festive at the Cyclorama, Boston Center for the Arts.  First off, I hate to make the comparison, but I felt like I was at a more commercial, less posh (but still posh) version of the pink party in last season's Gossip Girl.  Of course, I wasn't one of Them, a special Upper East Side trust fund baby.  Rather, more like a Brooklynite (albeit a far less cool one).

Speaking of fitting in, here's a word about fashion at fashion shows.   (Based off my one experience, haha).  Seriously, unless you want to be Seen, and want to actually take pictures with your besties there and try to take a picture with Betsey just to show how awesome and posh you are, you don't have to dress up ridiculously.  And if you are one of those press people, then just wear whatever is most comfortable.  People will ignore you anyway.  I know it pains our fragile egos to think that, but it's true.  I wore black skinny jeans, black boots, a silky t-shirt type top, short leather jacket, and black and white polka dot/leopard dots scarf.  I ditched my cutesy little jumpsuit in favor of a-little-better-looking-than-everyday-comfort (the jumpsuit's fine, but the shoes are not), and didn't regret it a bit.  Of course, men are safest with a blazer etc.  Unless you are the type to go in drag (yes, there was one of those).

Once I was there, I forgot about all my fashion dilemmas and began to focus on my camera.  Yes, intelligent me has not used this new fancy schmantzy camera enough to have it completely mastered, and it took me a while to figure out how to switch between different modes.

Before the show - retro models pose on blocks as people mingle around drinking drinks and eating hors d'oeuvres.

So there I was, looking ridiculous as I started messing with the buttons on my camera.  It got worse when the show started.  I totally didn't realize that the runway would be THAT bright, so I had to change modes again, several times, during the show (all while standing on tiptoe behind a crowd of other media people).

It was during this time, and after I got into the rhythm of CALM DOWN, STOP PRESSING DOWN THAT SHUTTER BUTTON LIKE AN IDIOT BEFORE THE MODEL IS AT THE END OF RUNWAY that I realized that a fashion show looks much different through the lens of a camera.  You watch the models come down the runway through your little digital screen, then you wait for them to get to the right place so you can snap the picture, put your camera down and rest your arms for a few seconds.  Only then can you see the runway with your naked eye, so to speak, and see that the models are so much closer than they were when you had your camera up, and notice all the little details that you missed on the screen.

To clear things up, my press pass was not for this blog (I'm not cool enough for that yet, probably).  I promise that I did actually take some really good pictures, I just can't put them up here.

ballet - afternoon of a faun

and....I have no more MIT FAST pictures as of now.  So here's another ballet post.

I don't know why all the pictures I find invariably end up being from the Boston Ballet...

Boston Ballet photo by Andrea Mohin.

...and, here's some music.  Just because I love Debussy :)

ballet costume part 3

I would love to have seen this in person.

Megan Gray (center) and other Boston Ballet dancers rehearse one of the pieces in Kylián's ''Black and White'' program. (Photo by David L. Ryan/Globe Staff)


Also...happy Mothers Day! :)

don't banq on it!

(sorry, bad pun).

So it's nearing the end of yet another school year.  Only about a month left!  Which means that I need to start thinking about the traditional end-of-month arts staff bonding dinner.  Last night the thought popped up in my head (again), and this time I had an idea.  I remember seeing this really awesome restaurant during one of our tours of Boston for architecture studio class.  And didn't remember the name.  Thankfully, my friend apparently has mad googling skills.

me: ...that architecturally cool place we stopped by on one of our 4.111 tours. Gr, I don't remember what it's called. But it had all those cool undulating waves of wood or something inside? Maybe in the south end?

jenny:  i just googled "boston restaurant undulating waves" and it came up!  BANQ

yeah, unfortunately Banq closed a few years ago.  And the restaurant that came after it, Ginger Park, just closed in December.  My restaurant search continues!

Anyway, at least I can marvel over pictures of the interior (and maybe a new restaurant will open there, and we can go next year...).

Later this afternoon is my MFA day.  I'll get to finally see the Chihuly glass sculptures!  So excited.  Pictures to be posted later :)

extra time please?

Sometimes I wish I could just quit my day job and have lots of artsy fun.  To be more specific - I love my classes, but who likes to do homework?!  I would rather just go arts event hopping around Boston, and write about them.  I keep on getting all these press mailings that I want to go to, but can't, because I have class...or too much work...or symphony practice.

just a few of the things going on in Boston over the next few weeks/month:

MFA - Photography from the Bank of America collection
(plus I still haven't seen the Scaasi exhibit)

ICA - I love this place!  Modern art is not my fave, but I'm learning to appreciate it (ok, I admit, some modern art can make me quite pensive. as long as it's more than a square painted on a piece of canvas).  Plus, the architecture of the building is fantastic.

Harvard art museums - never been.....I want to go....

Boston Lyric Opera - never been to one of these performances, but it looks like it would be a lot of fun.

Charlestown working theatre - Blackadder II on stage!  I have my doubts about such a thought! (the original was so.......unique), but still curious. opens April 8

April 9 - KT Tunstall concert in Boston - Paradise Rock Club!
I sooooo want to go.  Why do I have to have a test the following Tuesday?  Maybe I'll go anyway....

plus movies coming out -
Jane Eyre!  hated the book, really want to see the movie.  My main problem with the book was that he was so much older than her, anyway.  They look more well-matched in this new adaptation.

I started out as one of those museum exhibit reviewers, but now I really have this urge to expand my repertoire and write about other stuff - I already have exhibit review,  album review, and movie review under my belt.  Currently in the works is a review of Google art project - hopefully it won't be too late by the time I have it written (it's far too hectic over here!).

oh, life.

artists abroad

favorites -

Alvin Langdon Coburn - St. Paul's Cathedral, 1905 (photogravure)

Joseph Pennell - Charing Cross Bridge at Night, 1909 (mezzotint)

Edward Darley Boit - St. Peter's, Rome, 1912 (watercolor)
huge - 59.4 x 104.1 cm
also much better in real life, when you can actually see the watercolor brush strokes (dancing light, it seems)

and these two, just because they are so tiny!

James Wells Champney - Two Women in a Restaurant, 1866-67 (graphite and wash on paper)
6.6 x 11.7 cm!

James Wells Champney - Man In Restaurant, 1866-67 (graphite and wash on paper)

art of the americas grand opening @ the mfa

AND now I can say I've attended a community day at the MFA.  Plus a grand opening.  Not like I particularly took part in the opening festivities, but I still witnessed it.  That counts...right?

Community day - free admission to all!  Not like it matters, because I already get free admission with my MIT student ID.  Oh well.  I got there ten minutes after opening (I walked; it was so nice! - and according to google maps, it's only 1.6 miles from campus....and tell me again WHY I have been taking the T to the MFA all this time?).  By then, the line was halfway around the block - not like it really mattered.  It moved quickly, and in the meantime I got to amuse myself watching the BU marching band play in the [relative] cold and sip warm apple cider for free (comment from guy in front of me - "If apple cider was caffeinated I bet nobody would drink coffee anymore").  Um, NOT giving up my coffee, but apple cider IS pretty amazing anyway.

I wore a red sweater just because I felt like it - and ha, I forgot that the MFA logo is basically red, and, consequently, all of the employees and volunteers were wearing red.  Yup.  Lost in a sea of red. haha.

stairs in the new wing.....

so - also saw a few new exhibitions that opened today -
Artists Abroad: London, Paris, Venice, and Rome 1825-1925
Fresh Ink: Ten Takes on Chinese Tradition

If Fresh Ink was a huge, theatrical installment, Artists Abroad was anything but.  Both were excellent all the same, in their own way.  More to come later...

it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood!

First of all, happy Veterans/Remembrance Day and may I say that this is an excellent song!



Second - no morning MFA trip for me :(  Turns out, the Americans Abroad exhibition that I was so excited to see is not open yet.  Earlier the website had said it was opening on 11 Nov; now it says it's opening on the 20th.  So that's when I will be going!  Still annoyed about that bit....but at least when I go, I will be seeing the NEW MFA, in its entirety!  Their Art of the Americas Wing opens to members tomorrow, but not to the public until...also, 20 Nov. (Oh my goodness, it's going to be absolutely MANIC there!!!).  Until then, I shall be in anticipation!  53 new galleries, and over 5,000 works of art displayed.

So, instead of a museum trip, I had a little shopping outing this morning.  Grocery shopping, that is.  A 35 minute walk to Chinatown, where they have the freshest and cheapest produce that I know.  Oh, and I was going to take the T on the way back, but it was such a lovely day, I needed the exercise, and....well, you see so much more walking than you do taking trains underground.

Speaking of seeing things - not one, not two, but FOUR Vespas on the way back (totally made my morning) - two yellow ones (both within a block of each other), a red one, and a very luxe cream one.  I couldn't resist stopping to take a picture (groceries and all) of the first yellow one.....a bad picture, but a picture all the same.

oh, and how the autumn-y morning walk looked down Boyleston St -

Well, the brownies in the oven are calling me - off to get my chocolate fix of the day!

passing bells and sculpted angels

Pictures from my outing a few weeks ago - Nichols House Museum.

It was quite cheery in that little courtyard in the sun, but I always find those little cupid-like statues (yes, I realize that they are not all actually statues of Cupid, but it's the same sort of kitschy Victorian sort of idea, isn't it?) rather strange/intriguing/sometimes beautiful, sometimes creepy.

I'm having a lot of fun experimenting with the coloring effects on iPhoto.

baby's head.

three-day weekend...and i'm feeling antsy!  it's like spring fever...but it's autumn.  celtic thunder yesterday, apple pie baking today, and i want to go somewhere tomorrow (so not going to happen...darn essays and studying).

picture from an outing maybe a month ago...

there's two matching, giant heads outside one of the entrances to the mfa.  i only took a picture of one...

nichols house + some vespa spotting

Yesterday I went on a nice 2-or-something-mile walk from MIT to Nichols House Museum, in Beacon Hill.  It was Smithsonian Museum day across the country - meaning all you had to do was sign up and print out a ticket, to go to a participating museum for free!

Nichols House was a very nice place - beautifully furnished, and it was an interesting family that lived there.  They had a lovely self portrait by John Singleton Copley there - far better looking than some of those portraits he is famous for, like Paul Revere, John Hancock, Mercy Otis Warren...

My highlight of the morning though?

Walking down Beacon St!  For the ten (or something) blocks that I walked down Beacon St, towards Boston Common, I got to enjoy the beautiful sunshine and beautiful row houses.  So peaceful.

Of course, it didn't hurt that I passed by two different Vespas on the way - one tomato red and the other black.  Wow, this Vespa thing is getting to not be so much a joke any more.  I seriously want one more than ever now.

unfortunately, inopportune timing kept me from taking a picture of the more beautiful red one.  and from taking a nice picture of this black one :(

sometimes nighttime camera fail is good?

Last night we went on a boat cruise (the sailboat kind) of the Boston Harbor - at sunset!  The views were lovely...and as I am still familiarizing myself with all the buttons on my camera, I did not find the nighttime landscape mode until about five minutes before we were going to dock.  The resulting squiggle light lines were kind of interesting, though.

Rather dizzying too, I think.

(Norwegian Cruise Lines - I didn't know cruise ships docked out of Boston harbor...)

(Boston skyline)

"Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more; it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
-William Shakespeare